The ELSA

Absolute BeginnersThe ELSA Freshers Camp in Graz, Austria too placefrom the 22nd to the 25th November 2001Ruth FrölichELSA ZagrebDo you remember how hard itwas in the beginning tounderstand everything goingon in ELSA, to get involvedand most importantly, feelaccepted as a part of thegroup («that elitist circle ofpeople using strange terminology»)?Yes, there areevents for people alreadyvery much or even just a littlebit involved with ELSA – butwhat is there to help the newcomersto get acquaintedwith the ELSA world and thelegal profession as such?This idea was soon put to a test and acooperation between ELSA Austria andELSA Croatia was formed to organise thefirst Freshers Camp in Graz – a three-daytraining event designed both to introducefreshmen and ELSA freshmen to somebasic ELSA terminology including the noveltyELSA ONLINE and to offer the participantsa variety of workshops teachingbasic skills that may come in handy foryoung lawyers (as well as any other person).The number of people attending climbedup to around 54 students (and some graduates)from Austria, Croatia, Slovenia,Italy, Germany and Romania. This happenedalso due to the fact that thanks tothe extensive budgeting they were freefrom paying the participation fee andonly had to cover their travel expenses. Inthe end, not only freshmen attended, butalso several well-established ELSA members(wonder the reason…). Togetherwith the Austro-Croatian OC (Thomas,Daria, Adriana, Lada, Dora, Nicole and theauthor of this article) it turned out to be apretty good crowd (not that it wouldn'thave been without us, of course!). Theaccommodation was in the cosy GrazYouth Hostel, with lectures and workshopstaking place both at the hostel andat the University of Graz Law School.The lectures and workshops were dividedin two areas – ELSA activities and generaltraining. Probably the most eagerly anticipatedworkshop was the ELSA ONLINEtraining which enabled students to workon computers and to surf through theELSA website and to register in ELSAONLINE plus to discover all the advantagesof this fabulous system. Of course tocomplete the picture there was also STEPtraining. The participants also got a tasteof what it means to be a lawyer throughthe moot court workshop, and the femalepart was delighted to attend the panaldiscussion on “Legal Professions in the21st Century” where the guests werethree young successful lawyers working ininternational law firms. They answeredquestions about their jobs, career opportunitiesand also how to best presentyourself when looking for a job and howto write a CV, what to expect out of thelegal profession and how to coordinateprofessional and private life. Generaltraining included several different activities– while the lecture about challengesof the Information Society provided uswith insight on e-contracts and data protection,communications and financialplanning on the other hand concentratedmore on general aspects of the respectiveskills. In the communications workshopwe learned a lot about what makes agood listener (I can tell you, some peoplewere really surprised) and how to improvethe body language when speaking. Thefinancal workshop explained how tomake a budget plan for a project and abalance sheet – a skill some people nevergrasp. Given that some of the workshopswere organised simultaneously, everybodywas able to attend that which suitedthe particular person most.To top it all, evenings were reserved forwine tasting in an Austrian wine cellar,the famous Erasmus party and the infamouspub crawl (with only two teams, butthey made up for it without any problem)which enabled everybody not to onlylearn a lot, but also to cement it properlyin between the lessons. With the usual15